Looming over a playground in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Queens stands the enormous Ravenswood Generating Station, the 23rd largest power plant in the country. Its functions are to operate as a fossil fueled peaker plant, providing an extra surge of electricity during ‘peak times’ of high energy demand, such as when everyone turns on their air-conditioning during a heatwave.
While peaker plants were originally intended to only be used once or twice a year, they now run in New York City on a more regular basis to meet the city’s growing energy demands, particularly in the evening when more lights and devices are turned on. If one spends some time by a peaker plant they may feel a little nauseous. They may feel worse if they reside near one.
Check out David Pogue's video on Matching Water Heater Elements to a Solar Panel for more on how solar doesn't follow ohm's law.
A push toward renewable energy is facing resistance in rural areas where conspicuous panels are affecting vistas and squeezing small farmers.
At peak capacity the 83 acre PSEG Bethlehem Energy Center in formerly known as the Albany Steam Station can put out 893 megawatts of power when all four turbines are operated at full speed. The 94 acre solar farm in Greenville can put out a peak of 14 MW of power.
I think if you look at the environmental impact of many of these large scale renewable projects natural gas is a much less polluting source of energy than large scale solar. We should be working to improve efficiency of existing gas plants and improving pollution controls on legacy facilities rather than building industrial solar facilities.
CONQUEST, N.Y. – Imagine every inch of the New York State Fair covered with solar panels. Now double it. That’s the size of a solar farm that developers hope to build in Cayuga County.
The proposed facility in the rural town of Conquest would contain hundreds of thousands of solar panels spread across 2,000 acres, or more than three square miles.
A 200 MW nameplate solar farm on 2,000 acres of land is absurd compared to what can be done with fossil plants with a much lower environmental impact. Burning natural gas produces carbon dioxide, but the impact on the climate is small compared to the vast industrial impacts of solar.
Maybe there an upside to President Trump blocking New York from tinkering with it's ISO rules to ensure that solar farms have access to the grid. If he's re-elected, projects like this might be forever stillborn, as nobody will finance a power plant where there is no guaranteed market for the power produced.